“I can accept people dying of AIDS. I can not tolerate people dying of ignorance,” read one… “I can accept people dying of AIDS. I can not tolerate people dying of ignorance,” read one panel included in the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed in the William Pitt Union this weekend.

Spanning the Union’s Ballroom, Kurtzman and Assembly rooms, the quilt included about 120 blocks, each 12 feet by 12 feet, and consisted of eight individual panels. Pitt Program Council presented the quilt, which created a maze of collages throughout the Union’s three rooms.

Inspired by more than a thousand AIDS-related deaths in the mid-’80s, gay rights activist Cleve Jones began to memorialize those who had fallen to the disease.

Now the world’s largest memorial to AIDS victims – it could cover four football fields if spread out entirely – the quilt comprises panels from all over the United States.

The quilt displayed intricate embroidery, with various gold, blue and multi-colored stitching. Some of the patchwork used old baseball hats or hand puppets to create a mixture of mementos. With Puerto Rican flags or green and white shamrocks on some panels, the quilt included symbols of people of various ethnicities, ages and interests.

On one panel, a question asked, “If God isn’t a Penn State fan … Then why is the sky blue and white?”

Other panels, though, didn’t have a humorous tone. One panel, with a theme focused on ignorance and silence, had a white-ink poem on a black background.

“Silence fouls this disease. Stereotyping perpetuates the myth of God’s wrath…” read the panel.

Some schools, colleges and hospitals dedicated panels to general communities, whereas families and friends made personalized panels for the victims. At the end of the exhibit, Pitt Program Council offered a chance for Pitt students to sign a panel to be displayed eventually on the memorial.